Pagan Altar's Final Album, "The Book Of Shadows", will be released August 24th!

Legendary NWOBHM/doom band Pagan Altar will release their long-awaited final album, The Room of Shadows, on CD, cassette, and vinyl through the Canadian label Temple of Mystery Records on August 24th, 2017.

Pagan Altar are one of the most complete and mystical bands to have emerged from the NWOBHM movement. Mixing '70s proto-doom elements with English folk, hard rock and heavy metal, they wrote some of the most grandiose songs of the genre on the sinister Volume 1 - and more recently, Lords of Hypocrisy and Mythical & Magical - influencing a whole generation of doom-obsessed fanatics.

Originally written 13 years ago, The Room of Shadows has gone through various shapes until finally being completed two years after the tragic passing of their beloved frontman Terry Jones, who had been bravely battling cancer for a year prior. This album is not only Pagan Altar’s last record, it also Terry’s very last vocal performance, and picks up where Mythical & Magical left off. Admirers of their previous works will be pleased to hear that this album is just as timeless, with its epic hard-rocking riffs and enchanting, poetic macabre lyrics of olde. And thus closes the Pagan Altar legacy, which will be with us after forever...

The Room of Shadows will be released on a limited vinyl version with stardust gold vinyl, 12" x 24" silkscreen poster, large logo patch, 7 incense sticks (the same occult fragrance Pagan Altar would burn on stage in the '80s - 7 sticks for 7 tracks) and a 4-page insert; a regular version with black vinyl and 4-page insert; a 12-page-booklet CD; and cassette tape. Preorder info for the regular vinyl, HERE; for the CD, HERE; and for the cassette, HERE.

In the meantime, hear the new track "The Room of Shadows" exclusively HERE, courtesy of TheObelisk.net. The previously revealed "Dance of the Vampires" can be heard HERE, courtesy of Decibel.

Tracklisting for Pagan Altar's The Room of Shadows
1. Rising of the Dead
2. Portrait of Dorian Gray
3. Danse Macabre
4. Dance of the Vampires
5. The Room of Shadows
6. The Ripper
7. After Forever

Release party at Wings of Metal Festival
Alan Jones, Diccon Harper, and Andy Green - under the moniker "Time Lord" - will be paired with session members Brandon Radigan (vocals - Magic Circle) and Andres Arango (second guitar - Cauchemar, Metalian) to play a special release party/tribute to Terry in Montreal at the Wings of Metal show on September 9th, 2017.

Biography
Formed in ’78 in Brockley (south London) by Terry Jones and his son, Alan Jones, Pagan Altar was at the crossway of '70s downer rock and what would become the NWOBHM movement. The band followed a much less-traveled path than the other bands of the scene, choosing to infuse their '70s rock and folk influences into occult-tinged heavy metal. They had originally released only a demo tape, which was reviewed in few fanzines of the time. They oddly never got any label backing, and the band folded until 2004, when they re-formed with much enthusiasm from their fans, who rediscovered their eldritch sounds. Alongside the likes of Witchfinder General, they were among the first to mix doom metal with NWOBHM. Room of Shadows will be their fourth and final album, but their legacy will reverberate for eternity.

A rare video of a 1984 live show was recently unearthed by Alan Jones for the occasion, which can be viewed here.



Temple Of Mystery: HERE!
Facebook: HERE!

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Tags:  Pagan Altar, The Book Of Shadows, Terry Jones, Dance of the Vampires, Cancer

Red Baron    August 07, 2017